Brisbane Times journalist

The Jezabels' Hayley Mary onstage at the 2011 Homebake music festival in Sydney.

There’s perhaps nothing that plays more on the insecurities of music writers than when someone tells them to “get a real job”.

Last month when The Jezabels lead singer Hayley Mary fired that stinging barb at reviewers who criticised her band’s latest album, some online authors gnashed their teeth, grabbed their laptops and gave her a serve back.

Who would assume the all-important “role as opinion-leaders” if there was no critics?, well-known British reviewer Everett True asked.

“It’s not just pop music. It’s never just pop music,” he wrote.

Advertisement

After all, said another, if negative reviews didn’t exist Mary would never understand the “true near-orgasmic relief” that comes with defying the critics. He later added that he was “pretty sure nobody thinks being a musician is a real job”.

Such feisty responses have left Mary feeling slightly amused, but also vindicated her view that some critics go over the top when they don’t like her music.

“Look, that was a bit of a rant, and I’ve got to say I’ve had more articulate rants in my time,” she says of her attack on the critics.

“It was a little bit self-contradictory and a little bit hypocritical, and there’s various things that I’m guilty of because I’m a human being. It was kind of in jest, particularly the ‘get a real job’ bit. But that seems to have really bothered some people.”

Mary references a quote from late American author Kurt Vonnegut, who once likened reviewers’ rage with bad novels to “a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae”.

“That’s how it feels sometimes as a musician. I’m like, ‘Do you really hate me and all I am and all my fans? Do you have to be that angry? I’m pretty sure I haven’t killed anyone, you know’,” Mary says.

“It feels personal ... I’m not saying you shouldn’t analyse pop music or that pop music doesn’t matter. I dedicate my life to pop music. But my point is things should have perspective.”

It’d be fair to say that until now, The Jezabels have had a smooth run in terms of the way their music has been publicly received.

New album The Brink has not been widely panned - far from it - but it has divided opinions.

Mary, along with band members Sam Lockwood, Heather Shannon and Nik Kaloper, have shifted their sound away from the intense indie tunes that made them Triple J darlings, following three popular EPs and their award-winning debut album, Prisoner.

The Brink, which features singles The End and Look of Love, is more pop-friendly. There’s still a strong flavour of the “classic” Jezabels sound, including Mary’s distinctive voice soaring in parts, but overall it’s softer, gentler and more refined than their earlier work.

Mary says these changes are vital to ensuring the band continues to evolve and can maintain their longevity.

“You can’t stay the same and you have to do something different. I think people just get fond of what they know. ... I think it just takes time with music and with most fans who are going to put the time in, things will grow on them,” she says.

“Every time you change something you’re alienating someone, and hopefully inviting new people in. But I guess it’s that ratio. You’re never going to keep all your fans, you’re going to have people who liked the old stuff better. That’s a fact. You’ve just got to hope that you’re expanding more than you’re losing.”

The Jezabels will play a series of headline shows across Australia in April and May, and were supposed to spend the start of this month touring the US and Canada. However, logistical problems caused the North American tour to be postponed, providing the band members with an unexpected month off at home.

Mary says it’s a welcome break and a chance to take in the creature comforts of Sydney - outside Thailand, Australia has the best Thai food, she says.

“I love this place!” she exclaims.

“I always have a list of food places I need to go to, and I’m going to go to all of those at least three times’’.

When the Australian tour gets under way, the Brisbane show will have some extra meaning.

Hayley Mary, Heather Shannon and Sam Lockwood hail from Byron Bay, so family and friends will travel to be in the crowd.

It was back in Byron that Mary and Shannon first met at primary school and bonded over their love of music. Mary had an acoustic guitar and Shannon played her violin, and Mary jokes that their semi-emo, semi-folk music sounded “quite terrible”.

Later when they were studying in university in Sydney, guitarist Lockwood started playing with them before drummer Nik Kaloper was recruited to complete the quartet in 2007.

Two years later they had released their first EP The Man is Dead. By the end of 2012, they had won the Best Independent Release ARIA for Prisoner.

One of the things that initially drew many fans to The Jezabels was a sense that there was more to the band than just the music. They’re socially conscious, opinionated and politically savvy. Mary’s lyrics often refer to navigating the world through the eyes of a feminist.

Despite having spent much of last year in London recording The Brink, Mary looks at Australia’s social and political landscape and believes things are “going backwards”.

She sees problems with how issues surrounding asylum seekers, the environment, and gender equality have been addressed.

She “just doesn’t get” why Australians voted in Tony Abbott and is embarrassed by “the misogyny in which we treated our first female prime minister”.

“I’m not saying I am a Gillard supporter - I am not - I just thought it was pretty disgusting and sad,” Mary says.

But before embarking on a well-articulated rant, Mary pauses and quips: “I really shouldn’t talk for longer than a minute, or it gets dangerous”.